Which App Store categories make the most money?

"Which category makes the most money?" has two honest answers, and they point in different directions.

One is about the whole market, where a few giant apps in games, streaming and social take most of the money. The other is about apps like yours: new, independent, usually selling a subscription. Here are both, with what each number measures.

Which categories earn the most overall?

Across the App Store and Google Play, people spent $167 billion in apps and games in 2025, up 10.6%, by Sensor Tower's estimate.

• Games brought in close to $82 billion, up only 1.3%.
• Everything else grew 21%, and for the first time non-game apps earned more than games.
• The biggest non-game earners were social media, streaming and dating apps.

Apple's own figures, from a study it funded, put games, enterprise apps and video streaming at the top of digital spending in its ecosystem.

Which categories are growing fastest?

For developers based in the US, Apple's study measured how App Store earnings grew from 2019 to 2024 in the ten biggest categories:

Games still earned the most in 2024. They just grew the slowest.

What do indie subscription apps earn by category?

This is the number that matters if you're building alone. RevenueCat's 2026 report covers over 115,000 subscription apps that use its tools, with more than $16 billion in revenue.

Photo & Video leads on the typical app. Gaming has the highest ceiling: its top 10% earn the most, and it's the most likely to reach $10,000 a month. Travel trails on almost every measure.

Which categories have the most valuable customers?

Revenue per subscriber in their first year tells a different story. RevenueCat reports Health & Fitness at $35.64 per payer, more than three times Gaming's $11.22.

So a fitness app needs far fewer subscribers than a game to earn the same. That matters more to a solo developer than any market total.

Why don't the biggest categories help an indie maker?

Because the money in them is concentrated. Social, streaming and dating revenue mostly flows to a handful of companies with big budgets and network effects you can't copy.

Some of the biggest categories are also crowded on the App Store itself. Apple's guidelines name dating among the categories with enough apps already, and ask new ones to offer something clearly different.

How much does a typical new app make?

Less than launch stories suggest. A year after launch, the median subscription app in RevenueCat's data makes about $72 a month. Only 17.3% reach $1,000 a month within two years, and 4.6% reach $10,000.

The gap is widening too. RevenueCat found the top quarter of apps grew 80% in a year, while the bottom quarter shrank by a third.

How should this change what you build?

• Pick a category where the typical app does well, not only where the giants are: Photo & Video and Health & Fitness stand out for indie subscription apps.
• Think in revenue per customer. A small audience of people who pay well beats a big one that won't pay.
• Expect the typical outcome, plan for the good one. Most apps earn little. The ones that grow keep shipping and keep launching.

Where do these numbers come from?

They measure different things, so don't compare them with each other:

• Sensor Tower: modelled estimates of spending across the App Store and Google Play combined.
• Apple's studies: funded by Apple and run by Analysis Group. The growth table covers US-based developers' App Store earnings, 2019 to 2024.
• RevenueCat: real revenue from subscription apps that use its tools, not the whole market. Category figures come from the charts on its public page.